Both McLaren cars were referred to the stewards over a technical breach.

Lando Norris finished second in Las Vegas but was then placed under investigation (Image: Getty)

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have been disqualified from the Las Vegas Grand Prix over a technical breach. Both McLaren cars failed post-race technical checks following the night race in Sin City and, as a result, Norris and Piastri were summoned to the stewards.

FIA scrutineers found that the thickness of the planks underneath the McLaren cars measured at less than 9mm, which is the required minimum by the end of a race. That suggested the cars were running with an illegally low ride height and that led to both cars being disqualified from the final classification.

It is a huge moment in the drivers’ title race after Max Verstappen won the Las Vegas race. Because Norris and Piastri were stripped of their results, that victory puts the Dutchman level on points with the Aussie and 24 behind championship leader Norris, with two rounds remaining.

Both McLaren drivers were summoned to the stewards for a hearing which began at 7.45am UK time. The hearing went on for more than an hour and the outcome was finally confirmed close to 2am local time, more than four hours after the conclusion of the Grand Prix.

Norris had finished the race second, having started on pole but lost out to Verstappen at the first corner. The Brit tried an aggressive defence against his Red Bull rival but ended up overshooting the corner as a result, which dropped him behind both Verstappen and George Russell into third place.

He made light work of getting back ahead of the Mercedes but catching Verstappen proved impossible. Regardless, Norris thought he had increased the points gap between himself and team-mate Piastri in the championship heading into the final two rounds of the year, but now faces having to fend off both the other McLaren and the Red Bull of Verstappen over the next couple of weekends.

Before learning of his disqualification, Norris had already been “pretty disappointed” with his performance in the race. He said: “We just weren’t quick enough, we didn’t have the pace. I messed up turn one, it was pretty pretty poor for me. I just braked too late, it was all on me. Pretty poor for myself, but even if I came out in P1 out of turn one, we were just not quick enough.

“Max has done a very good job and the Red Bull is very quick, so they deserve the win today. They were another league compared to us. A bit of a shame that we we didn’t have more pace – we’ve got to try to improve even more. I’m just pretty disappointed with today. I look forward to getting somewhere warm and to go play some golf, go play some padel for a few days, enjoy a few days off and then do everything we can to try to win in Qatar.”